The History of Tonic Water.

The history of tonic water begins in 17th, century Peru when Spanish colonists discovered a treatment for malaria in the bark of the quinaquina tree. One account insists that the Countess of Chinchon, the Peruvian viceroy's wife, took the bark to Spain around 1640 after it saved her from malaria. Another proposes that a Jesuit missionary named Barnabe de Cobo made the first trans-Atlantic delivery in 1632. Whichever the case may be, the ground bark became known as both "Countess's powder" and "Jesuit's powder" throughout Europe. In the 18th century Carolus Linnaeus chose to classify the quinaquina tree as genus "cinchona(sĭngkō`nə) or chinchona(chĭngkō`nə), name for species of the genus Cinchona," in honor of the legendary lady.

In 1817 French scientists Pelletier and Caventou found a method for extracting the bark's most medically powerful compound, quinine before the development of more effective synthetic drugs. They quickly established a factory to produce it, and sold the drug as a means of preventing malaria. As early as 1825 British officers in India devised a way to make their bitter, daily dose more pleasurable. They combined it with sold water, sugar, lime and gin, inventing a potent precursor to the classic gin-and-tonic. Bottles of sweetened quinine water soon appeared, to be drunk with or without the alcohol. Carbonated tonic water was introduced towards the end of the 19th century.

With many colonies in malaria-prone areas, the British and the Dutch needed large quantities of quinine. Over-harvesting brought cinchona trees to the brink of extinction, and quinine became as valuable as gold. Eager to find a way to supply their own demand, both the British and the Dutch smuggled cinchona seeds out of South America,in the mid-19th century. The Dutch, however, proved more adept at cultivating the trees. By World War l, the Dutch nearly monopolized the quinine trade from their plantations in Java.

During World War II, the Japanese occupied Java, creating a need among Allied nations for a new source of quinine. Cinchona trees were planted in Africa while scientists tried to create a synthetic variety. Both initiatives were successful: today most natural quinine comes from Africa, while some prescription quinine is synthetic.

Tonic water has become much less therapeutic over the years. When it was first produced for medicinal use, it contained a prescription dose of quinine too large for casual drinking. Today, by law, tonic water must contain less than one-tenth of a gram of quinine per liter. However, even in small amounts, quinine is thought to be beneficial in stimulating digestion and easing muscle cramps. On the other hand, excessive quinine intake can cause Side effects

By the 1980s, soft drink companies began sweetening soda and tonic water with High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). In recent years, HFCS has been causing various degrees of concern among health-conscious consumers.

For cocktail aficionados it is taboo, a substance believed to overpower the subtleties of top-shelf liquors. That's just one of the reasons many mixologists insist on making their own tonic water, "Highfructosecorn syrup is not only detrimental to your health, it also gives you a hell of a hangover. Gin, is often unfairly blamed for the headache. It's not the gin. It's that 99% of people drink gin with HFCS-sweetened tonic, which has three times as much sugar as any fruit juice."

Homemade tonic is still pleasantly bitter, but much less sweet, and lower in calories. As cocktail mixers, they allow the flavor profile of the gin to come through. Any of the aromatic gins really show their stuff with home-made tonic. You can really sense a lot more of the floral characteristics of the gin, and the different herbs, roots and spices, rather than just that juniper taste.

Homemade tonic has been so well received that tonic-based cocktails are enjoying a revival.

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